


In Which a Hatred of Melchior Brings Two Closer

by brightstagelights



Category: Spring Awakening - Sheik/Sater
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, And maybe some minor bullying?, F/F, M/M, Melchior is a dick in this, Minor Angst, New Student!Ernst, Oops, Thea And Hanschen Are Siblings, but it is to me, if you could call it that, im sorry, it's not super important, rated for language, the wendla/ilse is like barely mentioned, very very very minor - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 10:19:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14542578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightstagelights/pseuds/brightstagelights
Summary: Ernst is a new student and all Wendla wants to do is to make him feel welcomed. She enlists the help of her friends to get him to talk, even if some are hesitant.





	In Which a Hatred of Melchior Brings Two Closer

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys, this is my first fic ever posted here! Please be gentle. Feedback is always appreciated though, thank you! 
> 
> I also want to say a quick thank you to @hanschen_ril0w for being my beta reader! Love you, H!!!

Ernst Robel was a bit of a mystery. People, of course, knew the basics. They knew he was in Pre-Calculus and AP Literature and Composition and that he sat alone during lunch. They knew he always sat in the back of the room and that he just barely participated in gym class so as not to get points off of his grade. But no one really knew who he was.

Ever since day one, everyone had tried to get Ernst to speak to them. Like the loving person she was, Wendla was the first one to approach him on his first day back in January.

-

"Hi!" Wendla said excitedly. She always loved meeting new people and helping them get settled, like the true mom-friend she was. "I'm Wendla. What's your name?"

"Ernst." The new kid, Ernst, responded curtly. He made it very clear that he did not want to be bothered. Still, Wendla persisted.

"Ernst. That's an interesting name! Where did you move here from? Do you like it here so far?" Wendla was determined to get him to open up to her.

"It's fine," Ernst concluded his answers by walking away, leaving Wendla in shock. She immediately ran to Ms. White's room to fill in her other friends.

"No guys you don't understand," she said exasperatedly after she had thrown her things onto her desk, "he didn't want to talk to me. But I'm nice! Why didn't he want to talk to me?"

"Babe," Ilse put her hand reassuringly on Wendla's back, "if he didn't want to talk to you, that's his loss."

"Yeah," Anna chimed in, "you're literally the nicest person here. Maybe he just needs to get adjusted first before he makes friends."

Thea and Martha nodded along with what Anna had said. The girls all knew that Wendla could be seen as a bit much by those who didn't know her but her intentions were always good. She could just be a little overbearing from time to time.

-

Ever since then, Wendla had tried to see if anyone talked to Ernst at all. She was so committed to starting "Operation: Get Ernst to Talk" that she enlisted the help of the boys. Georg had tried to talk to him during keyboard class but Ernst put in his headphones and cranked up the volume of his keyboard to drown the other boy out. Otto tried asking him about his view of the novel they were reading in English but Ernst just shrugged indifferently. Even Moritz, bless his heart, attempted to talk to Ernst, social anxiety and all.

Sliding onto the lab stool next to Ernst, Moritz introduced himself.

"Hey, um, hi my name's Moritz, you don't have to talk to me or anything but I just wanted to say hi." Moritz smiled meekly at Ernst, preparing himself for rejection.

Turning to look at him, there was something about Moritz that made Ernst give an actual reply. Whether it was the pleading look in Moritz's eyes or if it was the fact that he had been finally worn down by all these people introducing themselves, Ernst didn't know.

"Hi, Moritz. I'm Ernst." Moritz was so excited to actually get a reply, unlike all of his other peers who had tried before. But, just as he opened his mouth to say something, the bell rang and Ernst slipped into the crowd and out the door.

The next day in lunch, Moritz told everyone what he had accomplished. Everyone was pretty proud considering they had all been trying to talk to him for the past two weeks. Everyone that is, except Hänschen and Melchior. Hänschen had wanted to talk to the cute boy who sat in the back of the room but he never saw the chance to do so. Ernst practically exuded " _leave me alone_ " and Hänschen did not want to get on the new kid's bad side despite having never spoken to him.

Melchior, on the other hand, didn't talk to Ernst because of pride. He thought he was God's gift to this world—even though he doesn't he believe in God, yes we get it—and thought that if Ernst wanted to speak to him, he would and he refused to go out of his way to talk to the new student.

"Hey guys," Martha asked Hänschen and Melchior, "have you gotten anywhere with Ernst? We all promised Wendla we'd try and you guys haven't told us anything."

Just as Hänschen was going to answer, Melchior cut him off.

"No. If Ernst wanted to speak with me, he'd do it on his own volition."

"I think your pride is why you haven't talked to him," Ilse sneered from across the table. "You're too worried that because we haven't gotten anywhere, except him being nice to Moritz yesterday, he won't talk to you. And God forbid someone doesn't like THE Melchior Gabor!" Ilse put the back of her hand to her forehead in a mock "damsel in distress" position to finalize her point.

"Hey! Hänschen hasn't spoken to him either!" Melchior tried to defend himself by pushing the blame onto Hänschen.

"That's only because I haven't tried yet," Hänschen responded. "I just haven't had the time."

Thea looked at Hänschen in disbelief. "Liar," she spat at him. "I heard you on the phone with Moritz yesterday about how you'd talk to him but were too nervous about how he'd respond." Even before she finished talking, Anna was nudging him with her shoulder and Wendla was cooing at him.

"You fucki-" he took a breath. "Fine. Okay. I think Ernst is cute or whatever but I can talk to him whenever I want to. I just haven't wanted to."

His friends all looked over disapprovingly. Before Hänschen could open his mouth to respond, Georg chimed in.

"Otto and I were thinking," everyone collectively groaned since Otto and Georg weren't exactly well known for their great ideas. "What if we made this into a bet?" This question was immediately followed by incoherent yelling from everyone at the table. Ilse slammed her hand on the table to shut everyone up and looked back at Georg. "Whoever can get Ernst's number first, wins."

"Yeah, but what will I be winning," Melchior asked. Hänschen scoffed.

"I don't know," Otto said. "Bragging rights? We didn't think that far."

"Why does it have to be made into a bet? Can't you guys just, I don't know, be decent human beings? Life, what if he finds out that you guys only started talking to him because of a bet? I know that you don't care, Melchior, but Hänschen if you like him? You can't do that to him." Wendla looked over the table with the voice of reason. Wendla was right, Hänschen did like Ernst and wanted to get to know him better but he knew that once something was on the table, Melchior wasn't going to back down. And if Melchior wasn't going to back down, neither was he.

Melchior shook his head. "I don't really give a shit about this new kid. I do give a shit about having bragging rights over Hänsi." Wendla just scoffed in response.

"Alright, fine. Enjoy being petty." With that, she got up and walked out of the lunchroom. Ilse followed soon after to make sure that everything was okay. She knew that Wendla cared a lot about everyone and didn't want her getting upset over the dumb actions of Melchior and Hänschen.

Once the two girls had left, the remaining people started discussing the terms of the bet, the prize, and what they could and could not do. Hänschen felt guilty but knowing that he could rub something in Melchior's face was a good enough reason to go along with the bet. Also, it would finally give him an excuse to talk to Ernst.

Unbeknownst to everyone else at the table, someone else was also making plans. Ernst had overheard Melchior and Hänschen talking about the bet. He came to a few conclusions. One, he had to apologize to Wendla for being rude to her on his first day. Two, he had thought that Hänschen was alluring and if the butterflies in his stomach were any kind of consolation that he liked Hänschen, he didn't know what were. However, he was wary of the way that Hänschen was going about talking to him so he decided he would remain indifferent until Hänschen showed him he wasn’t only talking to him to win some stupid bet. And three, he hated Melchior Gabor.

Ernst didn't want either of these boys to win because he didn't want people talking to him simply because of a bet. But if he had to choose one to lose, it would be Melchior. Ernst already didn't like how he acted in class—arguing with the teachers, going off on tangents that no one cared about, and just generally being an asshole—but this sealed the deal. Ernst was determined to make sure that Melchior would not win but also wasn't going to make it easy for Hänschen.

-

Weeks had passed since Hänschen and Melchior initially made the bet over Ernst's friendship. Meanwhile, Ernst had been warming up to Moritz and Wendla which had only made things more frustrating for Melchior. His pride was deflating because Ilse was right, he was too proud. All he wanted was for this damn kid to speak to him so he could shove it in Rilow's face and never worry about the kid again. Instead of paying attention during Mr. Housman's lecture on the importance of lab safety, he was making up ideas on how to get Ernst to be friendly enough to give him his number.

Unlike Melchior, Hänschen didn't care if Ernst was talking to Moritz during Chemistry or if he had apologized to Wendla for being curt on the first day. He wanted Ernst to talk to him when he was ready. He would always ask for Ernst's input when working in small groups, just to show that he was nice and that he cared about Ernst's opinion.

Because of his niceness and his lack of pushiness, Ernst couldn't help but gravitate toward Hänschen. Unlike the other boys, he didn't give up despite the cold shoulder Ernst constantly gave him. Part of Ernst knew that Hänschen was only talking to him because of the bet but he tended to ignore that part. He really liked Hänschen and wanted to believe that not everything was fake.

Melchior could see that Ernst was warming up to Hänschen. When they would split off into groups, he would automatically pair up with Hänschen, even if he still refused to be friendly. If he went up to grab a calculator, he'd grab one for Hänschen. Melchior had been trying his hardest to get Ernst to talk to him and this kid wouldn't even sit near him in class. That's why when he saw Ernst with two Chemistry textbooks, he exploded.

"Ernst I think your boyfriend can get his own fucking textbook," Melchior spat at Ernst. "He has legs. And arms. They're all functional. Or does he get off on having you run errands for him? I don’t know about you but ‘errands’ and ‘Ernst’ sound pretty damn similar to me. He's using you and you're not even fucking aware of it.” Ernst looked up at Melchior with a white face. He hadn’t necessarily been nice to Melchior but he definitely hadn’t been mean. He didn’t know what to say and when he finally got out of his own head, he realized that everyone’s eyes were on him which is exactly what he didn’t want.

“Oh, go and fuck off, Melchior,” everyone gasped as they looked at the back of the room where Hänschen was seething. “You’re just bitter because literally, no one likes you. Your only ‘friends’ are Moritz and Wendla which is pitiful because Wendla is friends with everyone and Moritz is too scared to tell you what everyone else is thinking.”

“And what would that be?”

“That you’re a dick.”

“Mr. Gabor,” shouted Mr. Housman over the ruckus of the class. “Go for a walk. Cool down.” As Melchior started to protest, Mr. Housman threatened to call the main office. Melchior walked out with his backpack slung over his shoulder, grumbling about how “adults think that because they have authority they’re smart and wise but they’re not they were just lucky to be born earlier than I was.” Mr. Housman got the class settled and sent them back to work on their assignments.

“Talk to yourself all you want, asshat.” Hänschen looked up in disbelief to see that Ernst hadn’t fled the classroom and that he was pulling his stool up next to Hänschen’s.

“Right?” Hänschen responded after he got over the initial shock. “I’ve hated him since elementary school.”

“He doesn’t necessarily make it that hard to do,” Ernst scoffed. Despite how harsh he was being, Hänschen was amazed by Ernst. He was too busy with watching Ernst run his hands through his hair in frustration to realize that he was staring. “You okay?” Ernst asked with concern in his voice.

“Me? Oh yeah, sorry, I’m good.” Hänschen attempted to cover up the fact that he was staring and tried to play it off. “I’m just kind of in shock that I finally told off Melchior.”

“Wait,” Ernst interrupted, “you’re telling me that you’ve never yelled at Melchior and you’ve known him since elementary school? I’ve known him for three weeks and my mom already knows him by name since I talk about how much of an ass he is all the time at home.” Hänschen laughed at this and Ernst realized he needed to do something to make sure he heard him laugh more often.

“I mean I’ve scolded him but I’ve always promised Wendla I would be on my best behavior with him since she’s hellbent on being nice to everyone. But oh my fucking God it felt amazing to yell at Smellchior like that.”

“Smellchior? What are you, twelve?” Ernst tried to look disgusted but he couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on his face.

“On a scale from one to ten I am,” Hänschen winked and then turned his attention to the Chemistry books. “I guess we should try to get some work done? As much as I would love to tear Melchior to shreds, I really don’t want homework.” Ernst nodded in agreement and passed a book to Hänschen.

“Thanks, by the way,” Ernst spoke up after they had been working for about five minutes. “You didn’t have to stick up for me. I get that you hate Melchior and all so you didn’t mind yelling at him but I still appreciate it.” Ernst nervously fiddled with his hair as he waited for a response.

“Of course, Ernst. I wasn’t going to let him talk to you like that.” Hänschen looked up from his book to make eye contact with Ernst. “There was one thing, though, that I didn’t really mind.” Hänschen didn’t realize what he was saying until he had already said it and immediately regretted it.

“And what was that?” Well, he couldn’t go back now.

“The part where he called me your boyfriend,” Hänschen said quietly.

“Hänschen, I know about the bet.” Hänschen’s blood went cold. “You don’t have to pretend to like me or whatever to get my number.”

“Ernst I don’t know how you know about the bet but I honestly couldn't care less about that right now,” Hänschen reached out to put his hand on Ernst’s. “You’re amazing and I realized that making the bet was dumb because I thought Melchior would just give up. I swear to you that this isn’t about the bet. It’s because I think you’re stunning and funny and despite only talking to you about how much of an ass Melchior is, I really like you.”

“Hänschen,” Ernst started but he trailed off as he thought about the situation. He did remember overhearing something about Hänschen finding him attractive on the day Melchior and Hänschen made the bet but he thought that it was only wishful thinking.

“You don’t have to say anything right now,” Hänschen squeezed Ernst’s hand which he was still holding. “I just wanted you to know that the bet means nothing to me and I would’ve talked to you eventually. I just needed a little push, you know?” Ernst nodded slowly.

“Let’s just take things slow, okay? Let’s get to know each other before anything else,” Ernst said hesitantly while Hänschen nodded. He released his grip on Ernst’s hand and moved to get the Chemistry books to put them on the shelf. He was mentally cheering that Ernst didn’t immediately shoot him down. He was especially excited over the fact that Ernst didn’t deny feelings for him. He had a chance.

When he got back to the table, he realized that he would have to take his work home with him. He shoved his homework into his binder and put it into his backpack as the bell rang.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” Hänschen called out after Ernst since he was already slipping through the door. Ernst simply nodded and disappeared down the hall.

 

Later that evening, while Hänschen was doing his Chemistry homework, he noticed that someone had written on it. More specifically, Ernst. The message read:

_“come rant to me about melchior all you want. -ernst”_

And in the same tiny scrawl were a series of numbers. Hänschen dove for his phone and texted Ernst immediately.

**Hänschen:** hey, this is hänschen. when did you write your number on my paper???

**Ernst:** When you put our chem books back. Thanks for that, btw

**Hänschen:** oof, you’re sneaky. i have to get back to my homework but i’ll talk to you later.

Hänschen put his phone down and put his focus back to the chemical equations and other Chemistry work he hadn’t done in class. He heard his phone buzz but assumed it was Thea telling him to lower his music or Wendla chastising him on how he treated Melchior. He didn’t want to deal with either.

After he finished his homework, he picked up his phone to see who had texted him. His heart jumped to his throat when he saw who it was from.

**Ernst:** I guess you won the bet after all. I was always rooting for you ❤️

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or you just want to talk, you can always reach me on my tumblr: 
> 
> brightstagelights.tumblr.com


End file.
